21 races, kicking off in Australia and finishing in Abu Dhabi with races returning in France, after a 10 year break, and Germany with it's now "traditional" one year on one year off cycle. The summer break falls after Budapest, there are quite a few back to back weekends to pop in your diary and Malaysia has gone.

There is only one seat still to be filled in the 10 teams who will make up the grid:

A few changes amongst the teams. Felipe Massa has retired (again) and there is speculation that Russian Roubles will buy a seat for Sergi Sirotkin. Carlos Sainz will have a full season at Renault after replacing Jolyen Palmer. All change at Toro Rosso (if you ignore the last couple of races of last season) with Pierre Gasly and Brendan Hartley given a chance to prove themselves in the Red Bull junior team and Sauber have dumped Pascal Wherlein in favour of Ferrari junior driver Charles le Clerc whilst retaining Marcus Ericsson (!).

Two other significant changes at the teams, McLaren have moved to the Renault power unit and Honda have picked up with Toro Rosso as they attempt to repair their damaged reputation as an F1 engine manufacturer.

So what are you hoping for in 2018? The home of Grand Prix racing is back on the calender, will Paul Ricard provide a decent race? Some the less exciting circuits keep their place but we still have a few of the classic venues and some modern classics.

Will Mercedes be all conquering in 2018? Can Valtteri Bottas mount a challenge to Lewis Hamilton or will he continue to be the submissive No. 2 we saw in 2017. Might Ferrari manage to match the power war with Mercedes, the 2017 chassis was certainly a match for the Merc and on some circuits was significantly better. Despite the smallest budget on the grid Force India have performed brilliantly over recent years, can this be maintained in 2018? Can Danny Ric up his game to compete with Max Verstappen? He's very far from being Yuji Ide but Max bossed him in 2017. Will the Renault engine move McLaren back to the front of the grid? How will the Honda engine perform in the Toro Rosso? Could the tie in with Alfa Romeo allow Sauber to improve? What will happen to Haas now that Sauber are the defacto Ferrari junior team?

Lots of questions. The first test session of 2018 takes place in Barcelona between 26th February and 1st March followed by a second between 6th and 9th. This will give us a good view of what we might expect but don't forget the "joker" for 2018 as teams will only be allowed 3 engines for the season. Expect quite a few grid penalties.